COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
HIGHLIGHTS OF PROGRESS
One Member’s Perspective
• Communicated needs assessment report via website, public libraries, media • Established a toll-free telephone line for use on the Burin Peninsula • Continued to investigate uses of telemedicine, with a portable video unit now in use by Renal Dialysis and Oncology Programs • Highlighted need for a navigation plan in the Board of Trustees 2008-2011 Strategic Plan • Offered regularly scheduled ophthalmology clinics • Monitored visiting specialty clinics to ensure regular occurrence and added child development and dermatology visiting clinics • Made a submission to the Healthy Aging initiative of the Department of Health and Community Services • Increased Burin Peninsula membership on the Eastern Regional Wellness Coalition from 9 to 23 • Established regularly scheduled linkages with Rural Secretariat – Burin Peninsula • Increased long-term care bed capacity on the Burin Peninsula by 10 beds • Trained staff to deliver parenting workshops/supportive services • Increased human resources in key areas, including nurse practitioner services, community health nursing, mental health and addictions, discharge planning and clinical efficiency • Established a Regional Mental Health Promotion SubCommittee to identify actions to support mental health promotion throughout the region • Developed a Community Development Fund and awarded $50,000 to community groups throughout the region, including $10,000 to the Marystown Recreation Committee • Developed a regional Health Promotion Plan • Developed a proposal for integrated primary health care services • Initiated a liaison committee for the Burin Peninsula ambulance operators and Eastern Health • Established a dialysis service and installed a CT scanner • Continued to monitor occupancy levels of acute care beds and long-term care beds • Increased support for home care and palliative care services • Increased cervical screening participation from 29% in 2005 to 43% in 2007 • Continued significant renovations at Blue Crest Nursing Home and started new community health centre in Grand Bank
The Burin Peninsula needs assessment was overseen by an Advisory Committee made up of residents of the peninsula who responded to advertisements by Eastern Health and who represented various determinants of health. A number of influences and their interactions have an impact on the health and well-being of the population. Factors such as social, economic, cultural and physical environment play a role in the health of a community. These are the determinants of health.
Advisory Committee members are: (sitting L-R) Lisa Slaney, Vivian Hollett, Ellen Picco; (standing L-R) Charles Penwell, Andy Moriarity, Alphonsus Ward and Eastern Health's Senior Director, Corporate Strategy and Research, Wayne Miller. Missing from the photo are Stella Hollett, Marilyn Hannum and Lisa Browne. ___________________________________
“Establishing a Community Advisory Committee was very important,” says Wayne Miller, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Research. “Advisory Committee members played an integral role in acting as a resource to help guide the needs assessment process. Having people from the Burin Peninsula with local knowledge act in an advisory capacity to the needs assessment was invaluable.” Mr. Miller also noted that each member brought with him or her experience and knowledge of the various determinants of health.
One of the participants on the Community Advisory Committee was Lisa Slaney. “When I saw the ad asking for expressions of interest to participate on the committee, I was immediately interested for both personal and professional reasons,” says Lisa. “I grew up in Marystown and, as I got older, I realized that some areas of the peninsula don’t have easy access to services. As Executive Director of Grace Sparkes House, women often told me about the difficulties that they had in getting services. I thought participating on this committee would help me to understand the needs that exist on the peninsula as “The great thing about this a whole.”
needs assessment was that it came from the people of the peninsula; it wasn’t from one group.”
“The whole process and result was a real eyeopener for me,” says Lisa. “Usually, we have our own understanding of something and we talk to our circle of friends about it and we have one perspective. The great thing about this needs assessment was that it came from the people of the peninsula; it wasn’t from one group. Participating on the committee made me realize that we need to consider the needs of the whole community—the whole of the Burin Peninsula—to make it a viable, healthy community. Health is not just about the services at the hospital. I found it to be very enlightening.” The Community Advisory Committee met in April 2008 to review the progress of the recommendations. “I think the needs assessment has had an impact on the community,” says Lisa. “The process was very comprehensive and the needs were identified. It’s two years later and I can see a difference.”
Provide Supportive Care Recommendations To ensure appropriate levels of long-term care services, wait list and occupancy statistics are reviewed monthly. Ten additional long-term care beds were opened in July 2007 at the U.S. Memorial Health Centre. These beds provided extra capacity during renovations to Blue Crest Nursing Home. These beds will remain open for new clients, thus increasing long-term care bed capacity on the peninsula by ten. 3
The lack of home support workers was identified in the needs assessment and an education program is now offered at a post-secondary institution on the peninsula. Staff at our long-term care facilities on the Burin Peninsula have agreed to provide preceptor training to personal care attendant students. While recruitment for alternate family care homes is ongoing and advertisements have been placed, we have had little success in recruiting more family homes. This is an issue across the province and more work will need to be completed in this area. Three additional Community Health Nurses have been hired to enhance acute care and palliative/end of life home care services on the peninsula. Treat Illness and Injury Recommendations Throughout the needs assessment, the geography of the Burin Peninsula was consistently referenced as a challenge for people. Attempts to address this are being made in a number of ways. Specialty visiting clinics (oncology, cardiology, nephrology) continue to be offered and have expanded to include child development and dermatology. Ophthalmology clinics are now being offered on a regular basis. 4
The Burin Peninsula has seen an enhancement of medical equipment and services in the past couple of years. Since the implementation of the CT scanner, over 6,000 scans have been completed. Dialysis services have been up and running on the peninsula since November 2007 with 6 clients receiving service. Significant renovations at the Blue Crest Nursing Home are ongoing and the new community health centre in Grand Bank is scheduled to early Fall 2008. Eastern Health secured funding for a Mental Health/Addictions Worker for Burin in March 2007 and wait lists for mental health and addictions services have decreased. Mental Health and Addictions clinics are also offered in Grand Bank, St. Lawrence and St. Bernard’s and a Regional Mental Health Promotion SubCommittee has been established to identify actions to support mental health promotion.
The organization is continuing discussion with the Department of Health and Community Services on the principles of a centralized clinic in the “...I particularly note area North of the dedication of Marystown. the staff, physicians and volunteers of the Burin Peninsula. They are extremely committed to their clients, residents and patients.”
“We are pleased with the progress made on the recommendations,” says Ms. Jones. “The needs assessment provided comprehensive information about the health of the people of the Burin Peninsula. This would not have been possible without their enthusiastic participation. I particularly note the dedication of the staff, physicians and volunteers of the Burin Peninsula. They are extremely committed to their clients, residents and patients.”
A Clinical Efficiency Facilitator was hired to support clinical efficiency at the Burin sites. A Discharge Liaison Nurse for the Burin Peninsula Health Care Centre has also been hired to work as part of an interdisciplinary team to ensure that discharge planning occurs on a timely basis. These initiatives should assist in having inpatient beds available when they are needed. Eastern Health developed a proposal for an integrated primary health care initiative on the peninsula and submitted it to the Department of Health and Community Services in February 2007.
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